Compelling Music Writing

With the cricket burbling away in the background, I'm devouring some quite fine music writing. The first article, by Ben Gook, is entitled "Teh Interwebs: Best Mixtape Ever?" on newmatilda.com:

"People have been fretfully holding a stethoscope to the chest of the Australian music industry ever since its birth. But the prognosis has been fundamentally altered in recent years, as technology-led changes to the consumption of music on the internet have ripped the heart out of the CD market and opened up many different paths to hearing music. One provisional — or should that be provincial? — result of this is that Australian artists can navigate the music industry more easily: DIY production has been supplanted by online tools. Another immediate result is that local musicians are less isolated." LINK

And I've also been bashing my way through an excellent article by a guy called Nick Sylvester, dissecting the "artist" known as Girltalk. From "GIRL TALK, THE MASHUP DETONATOR":

"If Girl Talk has done anything, his dead-end project is a reminder of how fiercely dominant Western pop music has become. This is a capitulation, an audio essay even, of the last 25 years of American pop music: loop-based, interchangeable parts that, turns out, are more similar than maybe we'd like to admit. The "isn't it funny how 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' sounds like that Boston song" moment is taken to its darkest, veil-lifted extreme. That we're back in the Tin Pan Alley, and all pop music might actually be the same after all. That the difference is truly manufactured, that the concerns of each song are not interesting. Taking cues from the Grand Wizard Theodor: pop music is not art, but sound design." LINK

Girl Talk is coming to Australia at the end of the month, playing the Laneway Festivals.

Thanks to Tim Shiel (Triple R announcer and the artist known as Faux Pas) for the tip off about the article above. Funnily enough he's also quoted in the top article too!

Shoot The Player

Just found this great blog which reminds me of similar ideas i've seen overseas, in particular the excellent La Blogotheque crew and the Black Cab sessions from the UK. The basic premise is to put artists in an interesting place/context (usually outside or on the street) for them to perform solo. The team behind the Sydney based site acknowledge the influence of those who've gone before (and pay aestehtic homage too) but describe their own take on it thus:

Jonathan and Amelia began making single shot music videos on the streets and in locations around Sydney – that was it; shoot whomever you want, wherever you can. What you see and hear is exactly what happened on the street that day.

Featured on Shoot The Player are rad humans like Laura Jean, Young Werther and Jack Ladder. Plus some international types like the overrated Lightspeed Champion.

Check out Shoot The Player, or have a quick look at this video featuring Pikelet:


Pikelet: Pillowcastle from shoottheplayer on Vimeo.